Jesse Jackson And 18 Others Are Arrested In Yale Protest

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: September 2, 2003

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and 18 other people were arrested yesterday when they blocked traffic at Yale University to show their support for striking clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers on campus.

Before his arrest at the intersection of Elm and College Streets in New Haven, Mr. Jackson led a rally on the Yale campus that was attended by 3,000 to 5,000 strikers and their supporters, according to police estimates. Mr. Jackson has led numerous rallies for the workers since they walked out last Wednesday, demanding job security and higher wages and pensions.

''This is the site of national Labor Day outrage,'' Mr. Jackson said. ''This is going to be for economic justice what Selma was for the right to vote.''

Mr. Jackson was the first to be handcuffed. As other protesters cheered, the police also arrested Jimmy Griffin, president of the Connecticut State Conference of N.A.A.C.P. branches, Representative Toni E. Walker of the Connecticut General Assembly and several clergy members. Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct. On Friday, 83 strike supporters were arrested for blocking traffic.

Marching alongside Mr. Jackson yesterday at the rally were the Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, a Yale Law School graduate; and the Connecticut secretary of the state, Susan Bysiewicz, a graduate of Yale College.

Yale officials have called the strike unnecessary, insisting that they have made a generous offer to increase wages and pensions. The university has offered the clerical workers' union a six-year contract that would include raises averaging slightly more than 4 percent annually. Yale has offered the food and maintenance workers a six-year contract averaging slightly more than 3 percent a year.

William Meyerson, a spokesman for the strikers, said New Haven's mayor, John DeStefano Jr., had called on the two sides to resume bargaining tomorrow, the day that classes are scheduled to begin. Union officials said they expected dozens of professors to move their classes off campus, as they did during a one-week strike last March, to honor the picket lines.

The workers' contract expired in January 2002.

Photos: After leading demonstrators in blocking traffic in New Haven yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, was the first to be handcuffed. ''This is the site national Labor Day outrage,'' he said of striking workers on Yale's campus. (Photographs by Associated Press)